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Harvard Medical School Fined $24,036 For Animal Welfare Violations

(Elise Amendola / Associated Press / December 18, 2013) By Saba Hamedy December 18, 2013, 1:59 p.m. The U.S. Department of Agriculture fined Harvard Medical School $24,036 on Wednesday for 11 Animal Welfare Act violations, including four animal deaths,from February 2011 through July 2012. The governments decision to fine the university wraps up an ongoing investigation of the medical schools animal facilities. One facility, the New England Primate Research Center , located in Southborough, Mass., announced its decision to close in April. In a document sent to the universitys Center for Animal Resources and Comparative Medicine, USDA officials outlined the alleged violations. Passed in 1966, the Animal Welfare Act requires the basic standards of care and treatment be provided for certain animals bred and sold for use as pets, used in biomedical research, transported commercially or exhibited to the public, according to a fact sheet posted on the USDA website. The first listed violation occurred Feb. 20, 2011, when during a procedure on a primate, the anesthetist increased the dose of anesthesia, which caused renal failure and resulted in the euthanizing of the nonhuman primate, the USDA document stated. Another violation, from Oct. 7, 2011, reported poor handling of a primate. After the primate had escaped enclosure, it was “recovered using a hand-held net.” Other reported violations involvedprimates that became dehydrated after treatment. In one occurrence, an employee failed to provide a water bottle” to the primate, which triggered the dehydration. Harvard Medical School told the Los Angeles Times in a statement that the “USDA has resolved its review with an agreement that we feel was appropriate.” “The leadership of the school cares deeply about upholding exemplary standards of care and attributes these outcomes to the excellent work of those members of our community who took aggressive action to institute rigorous quality improvements that benefit animal safety and welfare ,” the university said in its statement.